In outputting color data generated on a computer by using a color printer or a color multifunction peripheral (MFP) (hereinafter simply referred to as an “image forming apparatus”), a conventional method executes image processing according to a characteristic of each output device. In recent years, with the widespread use of communication via the Internet, an external server, which functions as an image processing server, has been used to execute image processing instead of using a locally provided image forming apparatus to execute the image processing.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-287745 discusses a method for storing image data of a format which is common to all image forming apparatuses connected to an image processing server and converting the stored image data of the common format into data of a format compliant with the specification of the image forming apparatus that prints the data.